The Wilderness Act in an Era of Global Change Gregory H. Aplet Senior Science Director.
-
Upload
owen-caldwell -
Category
Documents
-
view
213 -
download
0
Transcript of The Wilderness Act in an Era of Global Change Gregory H. Aplet Senior Science Director.
The Wilderness Act in an Era of Global Change
Gregory H. ApletSenior Science Director
The Wilderness Act turns 50
Overview
• A brief wilderness history
• The essence of wilderness
• Implications of global change
• A strategy for sustaining wilderness values
The Early Years – Recreation and Ecological Condition
John Muir Aldo Leopold Bob Marshall Victor Shelford
“By ‘wilderness’ I mean a continuous stretch of country preserved in its natural state, open to lawful hunting and fishing, big enough to absorb a two weeks’ pack trip, and kept devoid of roads, artificial trails, cottages, or other works of man.”
Aldo Leopold 1921The Wilderness and Its Placein Forest Recreational Policy
The Post-War Years – Humility and Freedom from Control
David Brower Howard Zahniser Wallace Stegner
“We must never forget, we are guardians, not gardeners” Howard Zahniser 1963The Living Wilderness
The Wilderness Act – 1964
The Wilderness Act
• Defined wilderness and established the National Wilderness Preservation System
• Established a process for adding to the system
• Described limitations on use
• Established exceptions to limitations
The essence of wilderness
From Section 2(c) of the Wilderness Act:
A wilderness…is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in the Act an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which…generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature…
The essence of wilderness
Earth and its community of life
Primeval characterNatural conditions
=Ecologicalcondition
(Wholeness or “historical fidelity”)
Untrammeled by man
Primeval influenceAffected primarily
by the forces of nature
=Freedom from human control
Ecological Condition
Fre
edo
m f
rom
Co
ntr
ol
Novel Pristine
Con
trol
led
“Sel
f-w
illed
”
Arctic Refuge
Downtown
Curtis Prairie
C&O Canal
Vacant Lot
Pine Plantation
Chesapeake Bay
Everglades
Fire-excluded Ponderosa Pine
Forest
Dimensions of Wildness
Recov
ery
Tran
sform
ation
Drift
Restoration
Ecological Condition
Fre
edo
m f
rom
Co
ntr
ol
Co
ntr
olle
d“S
elf-
will
ed
”
Novel Pristine
“Directions” of Management
The Ideal of Wilderness Restoration
Growth of the System
Enter Global Change
• Invasive species
• Atmospheric deposition
• Habitat fragmentation and land use change
• Climate change
Recov
ery
Guide
Chang
e
Accept Change
Resist Change
Ecological Condition
Fre
edo
m f
rom
Co
ntr
ol
Co
ntr
olle
d“S
elf-
will
ed
”
Novel Pristine
Global Change: The End of Recovery?
Pressure of Global Change:• Warming• Invasives• Fragmentation
Choices in the faceof climate change
Accept change: Observation only
Resist change: Restoration
Guide change: Innovation and experimentation
Certain Uncertainty
“We might feel confident of broad-scale future environmental changes (such as global mean temperature increases), but we cannot routinely predict even the direction of change at local and regional scales (such as increasing or decreasing precipitation).”
Millar et al. (2007)
What to do?
“Managing in the face of uncertainty will require a portfolio of approaches, including short-term and long-term strategies, that focus on enhancing ecosystem resistance and resilience…as climates and environments continue to shift.”
Millar et al. (2007)
“A portfolio of adaptation and mitigation measures can diminish the risks associated with climate change.”
IPCC Adaptation Report
An ExperimentalLandscape Approach
Observation only in some places (both treatment and control)
Restoration in some places (“Keeping all the parts”)
Innovation in some places (novel conservation)
Integrated across the landscape in a cohesive experiment
Principles of Allocation
• Representation
• Connectivity across gradients
• Configuration
An illustration
The Benefits ofan Observation Only Approach
• Deepening respect for nature’s autonomy
• Fostering scientific humility• Sustaining non-focal species• Reducing unintended adverse
consequences• Providing unmanipulated
benchmarks• Preserving options and hedging
riskFrom: “Let It Be: A Hands-Off Approach to Preserving Wildness in Protected Areas” by Peter Landres, USFS
Real Life Example: Hawaiian Ahupua’a
“In different places, in different chunks, we can manage nature for different ends—for historical restoration, for species preservation, forself-willed wildness, for ecosystem services, for food and fiber andfish and flame trees and frogs.” – Emma Marris